98% Say No To Same-Sex Adoption!

26 May 98% Say No To Same-Sex Adoption!

In responses to UFI’s poll question, “Should same-sex couples be allowed to adopt?” over 98% of our blog readers said “No.” As they say on a famous game show: “Good Answer!”

Many individuals know intuitively how important it is that children have both a mother and a father. But, they don’t have the information to feel comfortable in articulating “why” when their position on gay adoption and parenting is being challenged. Listed below are a few studies that can give you empirical support when engaging in dialogues on this topic.

Homosexual Parenting/Gay Adoption

Golombok’s and Tasker’s study revealed in its results section a clear connection between being raised in a lesbian family and homosexuality: “With respect to actual involvement in same-gender sexual relationships, there was a significant difference between groups . . . None of the children from heterosexual families had experienced a lesbian or gay relationship.” By contrast, five (29 percent) of the 17 daughters and one (13 percent) of the eight boys in homosexual families reported having at least one same-sex relationship. Susan Golombok and Fiona L. Tasker, “Do Parents Influence the Sexual Orientation of Their Children? Findings from a Longitudinal Study of Lesbian Families,” Developmental Psychology 32 (1996): 7.

Twelve percent of the children of lesbians became active lesbians themselves, a rate which is at least four times the base rate of lesbianism in the adult female population. Tasker and S. Golombok, “Adults Raised as Children in Lesbian Families,” American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 65, 2 (1995): 213.

Sixty-four percent of young adults raised by lesbian mothers reported considering having same-sex relationships. Only 17 percent of young adults in heterosexual families reported the same thing. Judith Stacey and Timothy Biblarz, “(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?” American Sociological Review 66 (2001): 159-183.

Recent studies indicate that a higher proportion of children of lesbian parents are themselves apt to engage in homosexual activity. Adolescent and young adult girls raised by lesbian mothers appear to be more sexually adventurous and less chaste. The researchers conclude that “children with lesbigay parents appear less traditionally gender-typed and more likely to be open to homoerotic relationships.” Judith Stacey and Timothy J. Biblarz, “(How) Does the Sexual Orientation of Parents Matter?” American Sociological Review 66 (2001): 174, 179.

Dutch Scholars found that compared to peers living in an intact family, adolescents living in a one-parent family are more than twice as likely to perceive a need for psychological help and more than three times as likely to actually be referred for mental health services. Alternative family structures, even in the open-minded, tolerant Netherlands negatively impacts children. Marieke Zwwaanswijk et al., “Factors Associated With Adolescent Mental Health Service Need and Utilization,”Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 42 (2003): 692-700.

Children of homosexuals reported that their childhoods were more difficult than the childhoods of children of heterosexuals. In nine percent of homosexual-parented families, children mentioned having one or more problems or concerns. Of the 213 “score problems,” 94 percent were attributed to the homosexual parent(s). Among appellate cases, the courts attributed 97 percent of the “harms” to children to the homosexual parent. (Narratives from 52 homosexually-parented families and files from 40 appeals court cases involving custody disputes between homosexual and heterosexual parents.) Paul Cameron and Kirk Cameron, “Children of Homosexual Parents Report Childhood Difficulties,” Psychological Reports 90, 1 (2002): 71-82. **Although there is criticism of Paul Cameron’s work we find no substantive evidence or reason to exclude Cameron’s studies.

Compared with children from traditional families, children from nontraditional families showed more psychological problems as rated by their parents and more internalizing behavior as rated by their teachers. Boys from nontraditional families were especially at a disadvantage; they showed lower self-concept, more externalizing, poorer classroom behavior, and lower grade-point averages. Girls from such families were less popular with peers. (Study of 136 fifth-grade children and their parents in Vermont.) Phyllis Bronstein et al., “Parenting Behavior and Children’s Social, Psychological and Academic Adjustment in Diverse Family Structure,” Family Relations 42 (1993): 268-276.

“Twenty-nine percent of the adult children of homosexual parents had been specifically subjected to sexual molestation by that homosexual parent, compared to only 0.6 percent of adult children of heterosexual parents. Having a homosexual parent(s) appears to increase the risk of incest with a parent by a factor of about 50.” P. Cameron and K. Cameron, “Homosexual Parents,” Adolescence 31 (1996): 772. **Although there is criticism of Paul Cameron’s work we find no substantive evidence or reason to exclude Cameron’s studies.

The research comparing outcomes from homosexual parenting and heterosexual parenting are notoriously inconclusive. Studies on the positive aspects of homosexual parenting “rely on small samples of white, middle-class, previously married lesbians and their children.” David Demo and Martha Cox, Families with Young Children: A Review of Research in the 1990s,” Journal of Marriage and the Family 62 (2000): 889. Glenn T. Stanton, “Examining the Research of Homosexual Parenting,” Journal of the Southern Baptist Convention, (June/July 2002), (http://sbclife.net/Articles/2002/06/Sla7.asp).

There are no homosexual parenting studies that a) take a nationally representative sample of babies born to or adopted by gay parents and married mothers and fathers and b) follow them longitudinally while c) controlling for standard demographic variables (race, education, etc.) and d) include a broad range of outcome variables. The studies that currently exist simply compare lesbian single moms to heterosexual single moms. Social science research has already shown the negative outcomes visited upon children who do not live with two married parents. Maggie Gallagher, Marriagedebate.com, Institute for Marriage and Public Policy, (www.marriagedebate.com/mdblog/2003_07_27_mdblog_archive.htm).

The American College of Pediatricians believes it is in appropriate, potentially hazardous to children, and dangerously irresponsible to change the age-old prohibition on homosexual parenting, whether by adoption, foster care, or by reproductive manipulation. This position is rooted in the best available science. “Homosexual Parenting Is It Time For A Change?” American College of Pediatricians, January 24, 2004. Coalition for marriage, www.preservemarriage.com

Children raised by homosexuals were more dissatisfied with their own gender, had homosexual experiences more frequently, and suffered a greater rate of molestation by members of their families (Adolescence, 1996; Archives of Sexual Behavior, 1986; American Sociological Review, 2001).